What was the last TV show you watched?

[MisterCairo]

The most recent Gotham (brilliant!), oh, AND ANOTHER GREAT EPISODE OF VIKINGS.

 

[Ernest P Shackleton]

^^^^
Thanks for the spoiler.

Sincere apologies on the spoiler. I thought with less than 12 hours to go until the next episode (6.5 days had passed), it was safe to discuss in detail.

When I care about your views on the shows I enjoy, I'll ask you for them.

Kind of a strange thing to say on a forum dedicated to talking TV, and I'm not sure what made you think my post was directly, or only, to you.

 

[Ernest P Shackleton]

Season one of "Hell on Wheels" was very tight and well structured; after that, it felt like they still had smart writers but they were winging it without much thought about how the storylines would play out in subsequent episodes.

I attributed that HoW's sloppiness to always being on the edge of cancellation and the additional storytelling complication of AMC splitting seasons into two parts, thus requiring two big cliffhanger dramatic moments to manipulate audience appetite. And let's be candid about Hollywood and TV. There's this awful propensity to change perspective between first and second seasons of a successful series. Be it drama, comedy, reality TV, or what have you. There's obviously some very influential bird chirps telling these executive producers that they can milk out another .0094% of a demographic if they do this and another .0045% of another demographic if they do that. Except that those changes often completely screw with the nuances of the show that make them successful in the first place. It's the problem with bean counters, marketing heads, and numbers. Allowing those boobs to try to break down creativity into an equation. The difference between someone studying a spreadsheet vs. that person being an actual fan of the show. I happen to think this became a problem with The Walking Dead a couple seasons ago.

 

[Touchofevil]

Better Call Saul, Vikings, and more Boardwalk Empire

 

[Stearmen]

American Pickers.

 

[MisterCairo]

Better Call Saul, Vikings, and more Boardwalk Empire

I have really got to start with Better Call Saul. I was hooked by the promos last year, but never got around to watching it (priorities).

 

[Ernest P Shackleton]

That was one of the better episodes of Vikings in a while, because it was actually building some story and attempting to develop character. It still played out like a series of metal music videos, like a collection of vignettes, rather than something cohesive, though. Maybe it feels like that to me because they spend more time with grandiose shots than with the aforementioned story and characters. Showing Floki in the cave in the Jesus Christ pose (how's that for irony, Floki?). Or these over the top macho wails and pounding of snow of self-sequestered Bjorn. More of those oddball scenes in Parisian churches with big, dramatic choirs. The show is just the weirdest thing to me. It's obviously fascinating to me in its drudgery. They're sort of trying to tell maybe a story? But they either don't know how, or are unwilling, to do the work these ideas demand and deserve.

Maybe someday we'll get off this hamster wheel with Rollo's of delusions of grandeur, self-hatred, betraying his brother, and repentance. Or maybe someday we'll understand how Ragnar is this forward-thinking, progressive visionary who suddenly beats his wife for reasons we, the audience, think we possibly understand, but in reality, the show has done little to build. There's tension there, because they've given us this indirect situation and that roundabout situation, but because the two characters are rarely on screen together, we don't actually know their dynamic very well and lack solid experience with them. That's one way to avoid writing dialog. For sure.

 

[DNO]

Floki's daughter died of a fever...just like Helga stated. Sometimes one really has to listen to the dialogue carefully. Best not to rely on Google.

I find Vikings quite enjoyable. I enjoy the fact that the writers don't lay out everything for the audience in a cut and dried fashion. They leave room for the viewers to put things together themselves. It reminds me of reading an early LeCarre novel...the reader was expected to put two and two together. Ragnar attacked his wife because he's quite aware of her indiscretion with the wanderer...that is made clear a little later in the show.

Frankly...I didn't like Downton Abbey, so I didn't watch it. I'll try any program. If I don't enjoy it, I don't watch it. Why watch a program you don't like? Life's too short for that.

 

[Ernest P Shackleton]

Floki's daughter died of a fever...just like Helga stated. Sometimes one really has to listen to the dialogue carefully. Best not to rely on Google.

Not revealed until the episode after the fact. She didn't give any details at the burial. That's fine, but at the time, I thought it was odd. A rather important detail when we just saw her playing on a beach a few minutes prior.

Ragnar attacked his wife because he's quite aware of her indiscretion with the wanderer...that is made clear a little later in the show.

He's obviously aware of something, but of what? I'm not sure. Maybe I'm forgetting something here, but I don't remember her telling him, her eluding to it, or Ragnar seeing it for himself. If he knows, or if he's suspicious, why does he know or have suspicions? It's clear that they don't get along, but I feel we're forced to assume too much about a lot of things. I don't think we know their relationship well enough to be making those leaps. To use your example, I don't think they always give us the 2 and 2. It's more like they give us a 2 and a 1.84, and we eventually find out the sum is 4.

 

[DNO]

They gave us everything we needed to know. Later in the episode Ragnar is telling his son a tale of Habard (the wanderer). When his son asks if he has met Habard, Ragnar responds with a pointed glance at Aslaug and suggests that perhaps his mother has met him. That, and his comment about loyalty after he struck Aslaug earlier, are the 2 plus 2 that we needed to know. Clear enough deduction...no need to hammer it into the viewers' heads. I think the writers are simply trying to respect the intelligence of their viewers.

 

[Ernest P Shackleton]

When his son asks if he has met Habard, Ragnar responds with a pointed glance at Aslaug and suggests that perhaps his mother has met him.

Right. But how does Ragnar know this, or why does he have suspicions? Which would also explain his comment about loyalty. They did give us information, but they didn't give us how that information was gleaned. Was it clairvoyance? Athelstan revealed it in a vision? One of the maids narced? Did the Seer tell him? Ragnar wasn't there to see it first hand. It's kind of an important detail, albeit small, if it is going to cause the character to behave contrary to their disposition. It's also rather important if someone in the court is acting as either a loyal spy or a self-serving snitch. I feel how he knows this is an important element in a well-told story. As is, there's no deduction or hammering at all, because they never provided a full argument or all the tools in the first place.

I see what you're saying. I respect what you're saying. I don't find this show even rises to your explanation.

It finally dawned on me why we are talking in circles. You're talking deduction that he knows. I'm talking the impossibility to deduce how he knows because they never gave us that information. Apologies to you, and everyone else, if that has been a source of frustration.

 

[Stearmen]

Wheeler Dealers. One of the most iconic cars of the 20th century, the Messerschmitt Bubble car! They used a Mercedes van to haul it, and there was room to walk around it. Ed could almost drive it from the back seat!

 

[Touchofevil]

I have really got to start with Better Call Saul. I was hooked by the promos last year, but never got around to watching it (priorities).

I like it a lot. Good acting, good dialogue, entertaining characters, good stories. I never watched Breaking Bad. I knew that it was done well, but I had no desire to hate a character who I originally liked. So for me, the characters of Better Call Saul are new.

 

[Touchofevil]

Finished season one of Boardwalk Empire.

 

[MisterCairo]

We saw episodes two and three of Peaky Blinders last night.

We love, adore, Boardwalk Empire. Absolutely brilliant.

Peaky Blinders is even better! So far, we can't say enough about how much we like it.

 

[DNO]

I like it a lot. Good acting, good dialogue, entertaining characters, good stories. I never watched Breaking Bad. I knew that it was done well, but I had no desire to hate a character who I originally liked. So for me, the characters of Better Call Saul are new.

Go Land crabs!

 

[DNO]

Right. But how does Ragnar know this, or why does he have suspicions? Which would also explain his comment about loyalty. They did give us information, but they didn't give us how that information was gleaned. Was it clairvoyance? Athelstan revealed it in a vision? One of the maids narced? Did the Seer tell him? Ragnar wasn't there to see it first hand. It's kind of an important detail, albeit small, if it is going to cause the character to behave contrary to their disposition. It's also rather important if someone in the court is acting as either a loyal spy or a self-serving snitch. I feel how he knows this is an important element in a well-told story. As is, there's no deduction or hammering at all, because they never provided a full argument or all the tools in the first place.

I see what you're saying. I respect what you're saying. I don't find this show even rises to your explanation.

It finally dawned on me why we are talking in circles. You're talking deduction that he knows. I'm talking the impossibility to deduce how he knows because they never gave us that information. Apologies to you, and everyone else, if that has been a source of frustration.

No need to apologize...if we all liked the same things this would be one boring world.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

UFC prelims

 

[Touchofevil]

UFC 196 preliminaries. Not going my way tonight.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

Do you think an Irish knockout..??